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>Chapter 20. Database Roles</H1
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><B
>Table of Contents</B
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><DT
>20.1. <A
HREF="database-roles.html"
>Database Roles</A
></DT
><DT
>20.2. <A
HREF="role-attributes.html"
>Role Attributes</A
></DT
><DT
>20.3. <A
HREF="role-membership.html"
>Role Membership</A
></DT
><DT
>20.4. <A
HREF="perm-functions.html"
>Function and Trigger Security</A
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><P
>  <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> manages database access permissions
  using the concept of <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>roles</I
>.  A role can be thought of as
  either a database user, or a group of database users, depending on how
  the role is set up.  Roles can own database objects (for example,
  tables) and can assign privileges on those objects to other roles to
  control who has access to which objects.  Furthermore, it is possible
  to grant <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>membership</I
> in a role to another role, thus
  allowing the member role to use privileges assigned to another role.
 </P
><P
>  The concept of roles subsumes the concepts of <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"users"</SPAN
> and
  <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"groups"</SPAN
>.  In <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> versions
  before 8.1, users and groups were distinct kinds of entities, but now
  there are only roles.  Any role can act as a user, a group, or both.
 </P
><P
>  This chapter describes how to create and manage roles.
  More information about the effects of role privileges on various
  database objects can be found in <A
HREF="ddl-priv.html"
>Section 5.6</A
>.
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